154 ROGER OK WENDOVER. [Λ .η . 1190. professions, and the degrees of their offences. Throughout the broad extent of that plain, beyond the extremities of which no eye-sight could reach, I saw and heard crowds of wretched beings collected in miserable troops, and bound in flocks according to the similarity of their crimes and professions, whilst they all were equally burning, though their cries were different- Whatsoever people I saw, and for whatsoever sins they were punished, I noticed clearly both the nature of their sin, and the degree of their punishment, whereby, atoning for their crimes, or by the intercession of others, they might in that place of exile and punishment, earn admission into the heavenly country. But some I saw endure more severe torments with a calm mind, and. as if conscious of a reward laid up for them, thinking lightly of the horrible agonies they endured. Some I beheld leap suddenly forth from their place of torture, and make their way as fast as they could to the extremities of the place : and when they, dreadfully burned as they were, were emerging from the pits, the torturers ran to them with forks, torches, and every sort of instrument of torture, and restored them back to their punishments again, to inflict every kind of cruelty on them ; nevertheless, though thus wounded, thus burned, and pierced to the heart by their lashes, they at length came forth, always going in regular gradation from the most severe to more tolerable sufferings ; for some of the most atrocious there remained a most horrible death, without proceeding to more severe tortures : each of them was treated according as they were benefited or impeded by their former actions, or by the good works of their friends. Endless were the kinds of punishment which Τ saw ; some were roa-ted before lire; others were fried in pans; red hot nails were driven into some to their bones ; others were tortured with a horrid stench in baths of pitch and sulphur, mixed with molten lead, brass, and other kinds of metal ; immense worms with poisonous teeth gnawed some ; others, in thick ranks, were transfixed on stakes with fiery thorns ; the torturers tore them with their nails, flogged them with dreadful scourges, and lacerated them in dreadful agonies. I saw in that place many who were known to me, and who had been intimate with me in this life, tortured in various ways, some of whom were bishops, some nbbats, and some of